Why the End of the Year Is the Perfect Time to Start Your Biography

As the end of the year rolls around, there’s nothing more natural than reflecting on the past twelve months and pondering the decisions you made, the events that played out, and the lessons you learned.

But what if you took it a step further, and instead of just reflecting on the last year, you reflected on the last 30, 40, or 50 years? If you’ve been considering writing a memoir, this is the perfect time to take advantage of that natural introspection and start getting your story down on paper. 

A Season for Reflection

There’s something about holidays and significant events that turns us to the past. I’m reminded of a time I witnessed just that while at a Bar Mitzvah. My cousin was holding it for his grandson, and this was no ordinary cousin or ordinary Bar Mitzvah.

This was a Bar Mitzvah given by my cousin Abraham Zuckerman for his grandson. You think you haven’t heard of Abe, but if you saw Schindler’s List, you saw him. He and his two partners went through the concentration camps and owed their lives to Schindler, who would do things like leave extra potatoes out for the prisoners so they wouldn’t starve to death or treat his Nazi overseers at his factory to booze and prostitutes so they wouldn’t look too closely at the operation he was running, which was primarily about saving Jews. 

Abe survived the camps, met his wife Millie, then came to the United States where he found great financial success as a home builder. At that Bar Mitzvah, when Abe got up to speak, he was in tears, and before long, so were the rest of us. “When I was 15 in the camps,” he began, “stringing electric lights over quarries, I never imagined in a million years I would have a future. I never imagined I would live to become an adult, or get married, or have a family, or succeed. None of that seemed remotely possible. 

“And yet, here we are, celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of my grandson. For someone like me, who grew up in Poland, whose father made a living sewing shtreimelach, fur hats for Shabbos and the Jewish holidays, at his kitchen table, to be living here in America … all of it seems incredible.” 

Those weren’t his exact words, but they were close enough, and the whole room was convulsed with tears, except for the Bar Mitzvah boy and his friends, who were 13 and couldn’t have cared less. When Abe came off the stage, he glanced at them, and you could see the frustration that they weren’t paying attention to one of the most important moments of his life etched into his features. He glanced meaningfully at me, and his look said very simply, “We are going to write a book,” and we did.

Writing Abe’s Story

Writing Abe’s book wasn’t my typical process. Every few months, we would meet at the piano bar at the Hilton at 6th Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan, and he would tell me about his experiences growing up in Krakow, Poland, the onset of the war, forced labor, separation from his family and incarceration in the concentration camps, meeting his wife, and then coming to America. 

I would turn our conversations into drafts of chapters. We would review them at the piano bar at the Hilton, and he would add in fresh details, memories that he didn’t even know he had forgotten, to make the chapters even more robust, more real, and more impossible to ignore. He used to marvel at the swirl of tourists and businesspeople surrounding us at the piano bar. If only they knew what we were doing, they would be astonished. Nobody stopped to ask. Nobody bothered us.

Four years after we started, Abe’s book, A Voice in the Chorus, was finished. Since Abe was one of the founders of the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, his book was on sale there. Abe went to high schools throughout New Jersey and beyond, giving away copies of the book, telling his story to astonished schoolchildren, and always reminding them, “Never forget!” 

Create a Lasting Legacy

Maybe your history seems normal to you. Then again, maybe you know that you experienced something special, unique, refining. But here’s the most important question–does your family know it, too?

Just like Abe, your biography is more than a book; it’s a gift to future generations of family, colleagues in your field, and the public at large. It preserves the wisdom, resilience, and creativity that have defined your life. 

Want to set a meaningful tone for the future? Begin your biography now, and enter the new year with a proven commitment to self-espression and self-understanding. Whether you’re a trailblazing entrepreneur, a visionary leader, or someone whose journey is full of profound stories, you can turn the calendar page already fully invested in the transformative endeavor of writing your autobiography. 

We Can Help You Tell Your Story

At Meaning Books, we specialize in crafting compelling biographies for successful individuals ready to share their legacies. Just like we helped Abraham Zuckerman tell his story for his grandchildren and share it with the world, our team of ghostwriters will work with you to distill your life’s essence into a narrative that inspires, informs, and endures.

Don’t wait for another year to pass by before you get started. The sooner you begin, the sooner your legacy can take flight. Get in touch with us today.